Only one pair made the time over Andrew Heffernan’s cross-country track, but Tom kept the lead he seized with a showjumping clear when he came home with 2.8 time-faults on Deirdre Johnston and James and Jo Lambert’s JL Dublin. The pair were team gold medallists at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and European individual bronze medallists last year.
Tom said: “I thought he was epic this morning – jumped really, really well, really smooth. Then cross-country, obviously we had a good bit of gap [in scores, to the rest of the field] – which is not a bad thing around a course that I think was very technical and plenty to do – and I thought he was brilliant again.
“The ground was amazing and the fences were brilliant – especially the Defender combination [at fences 6ab and seven, pictured above] – I thought that was a really good combination and hopefully it was a good prep for maybe being selected.”
Bramham Horse Trials results: Lissington makes her move
Once Tom had posted his score, only New Zealand’s Samantha Lissington, another with her eye on the worlds, could beat him – and she had to go inside the time to do so. She and Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, who had been third after showjumping, ultimately finished two seconds over the 6min 57sec optimum to end up second.
“It all came up really fast – I thought it was a really tough track and for us it was mostly about having a good performance to put our best foot forward for selection,” said Samantha.
“So when I finished that second to last combination, I was thinking ‘okay, take a pull’, just to make sure of the last few fences. To come home in second was a bonus, but I was just really stoked with the performance as a whole.”
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Samantha bought the horse as a five-year-old with her first ever owner, Pip McCarroll.
“It’s been a real journey up to five-star level and hopefully fingers crossed we might get the opportunity to go take him to a World Championships,” she said. “He’s 15 now and he’s put up with all of my young rider years of making mistakes and going again and being genuine, so I owe him a lot of credit for my career.”
Sam Ecroyd and the 11-year-old Bloomfield Manuscript, owned by Joe and Kate Walls and Tricia and Rob Sargent, were the only pair who made the time and they finished third.
A year off
“People keep telling me that I’m fast, but it’s pretty easy on him – he’s quick, economical, doesn’t pull. He’s just a really good cross-country horse,” said Sam of the 11-year-old, who had last year off as a result of having a bone chip taken out of his leg; a small swelling appeared on his leg in a “weird place” after Burnham Market.
Another New Zealand World Championship hopeful, Jesse Campbell, conceded his dressage lead in this class when he and Speedwell had the final part of the treble, the penultimate fence, down in the showjumping.
He dropped to fifth at that stage, but cascaded further down the leaderboard when he had a drive-by at the skinny box hedge in the Womble Bond Dickinson Pond (fence 9c).
Kitty King was third after dressage and rose to second with a showjumping clear on her new ride Renkum Jitterbug, but she was one of a number of riders to have a run-out at the Defender combination (fences 6ab and seven), a skinny brush box followed by a turn to two angled brush shoulders on three or four strides. She then retired.
Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
